Topic: Paedophiles

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — The sexual exploitation of girls and boys, largely by men from the United States, has reached alarming proportions in Central America, according to children’s rights advocates who say the region is now a priority in their struggle against child prostitution and pornography.

NATIONS must fight the greed and brutal disregard for human rights which underpin the worldwide trafficking in children and women, most often for sexual exploitation, according to United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) Executive Director Carol Bellamy.

Internationally, there is no consensus on the term “trafficking”. In 1994, the United Nations General Assembly came near to a comprehensive definition in its stipulation that “trafficking” is the “illicit and clandestine movement of persons across national and international borders, largely from developing countries and some countries with economies in transition, with the end goal of forcing women and girl children into sexually or economically oppressive and exploitative situations for the profit of recruiters, traffickers, crime syndicates, as well as other illegal activities related to trafficking, such as forced domestic labour, false marriages, clandestine employment and false adoption.”

The film, The Lost Son, by Chris Menges was given its preview in Paris on April 20, 1999, It is the story of a private detective, Xavier Lombard played by Daniel Auteuil who is is hired by a rich family to find Leon, their son, a photographer and a drug addict. In the course of his investigation he uncovers a pedophile network and the horror of child prostitution.